The Incomparable Christ - Ben Stuart

well jesus is very popular i think you know that everybody from politicians to pop stars invoke his name all kinds of people want to associate with jesus jesus is the ultimate conservative jesus is the ultimate socialist jesus is the ultimate satanist i had a satanist tell me that at the zoo once i don't have time to tell the story it's fascinating but all kinds of people want to connect to jesus and associate with him but it brings up the question who exactly is he i remember years ago i saw this in a store and i bought it the jesus action figure with gliding action and it says on the back the name jesus means god saves which is true and it says for muslims jesus was a prophet buddhists say he was enlightened hindus call him an avatar christians call him the son of god who is he and at the end of this little write up here it says although he's understood in many different ways everyone seems to agree he was a remarkable man is that who jesus is and do we all agree on that he's a remarkable man and if that's what he is what are you supposed to do with him is he a historical figure you're meant to just learn about is he a role model you're meant to emulate was he just a victim of the political machinations of rome who is he and why does it matter to us what's interesting we started in this book colossians and the colossian church was a group of young converts in a metropolitan city diverse city and trying to figure out how to navigate life successfully how to level up to be all that they're meant to be as a human being as men and women under god and they're trying to figure out how to navigate the chaos of the world and for some of them they were being brought into you need kind of an austere aesthetic discipline in life others were hearing the allure of the sensuality of their culture and yet in the midst of all that what the apostle paul will do is call their eyes upward you want to move you need to fix your eyes on him it's interesting as i thought about this message i thought about a lot of you and just the question of why do you come here like why do you show up at church why are you here in this moment now i think if you were honest for many of us we were thinking well i want to improve i want to know more about god i want to feel more peace i want to feel better about myself i want to do better in the world i want to advance i need help i need direction i need guidance but let me tell you something if you show up here you're looking for those things i don't know if you've picked up on what we present to you as you walk in here and you hear us sing songs about jesus and sing songs to him you hear us talk about him and talk to him we tend to think quite a bit about this man and i'll tell you why paul earlier we saw this last week is going to tell them that hey do you want a optimism and assurance that you have hope in heaven do you want a confidence that there's a future for you do you want peace and endurance in the midst of pain do you want a fruitful life in the labors that you do do you want fruitfulness endurance and do you want hope for a future and then he points him it is all located in this man if you want to grow you grow in him the best thing we can offer you is him i remember one time standing out in front of church at the howard theatre and a woman coming to me and said hey so much of what you're preaching here resonates with me so deeply the applications are so profound and she said but i feel like you're limiting yourself by just trying to get everybody through this person of jesus if you would just expand your horizons of what's available in the human story i think you could do even better you just kind of have to decouple yourself a bit from this commitment to jesus and i told her i think you misunderstand who we are and i think you misunderstand who he is for paul he's everything and for us let me show you because paul as he's talking to these young people about how to advance in life to have peace in their heart a hope for a future and a fruitful life he says it's located in him and paul bursts into a poem about the person of jesus and let's look at it together and this really breaks into two sections this first section i call the lord of creation i call it that because it begins in verse 15 speaking of jesus he is the image of the invisible god the firstborn of all creation that word image is the word icon he is the representation of god the very nature and character of god is revealed in this man in jesus the invisible has become visible in both the old testament and the new the bible will say that no one has seen god but then the apostle john will say however the only begotten son from the bosom of the father he has explained him what john was saying is do you want to know what god is like look at jesus do you want to know how he treats the poor how he cares about the broken what he does when you've made a mess of your life if you want to know what the maker of all thinks and how he moves look at the person of jesus the invisible has become visible in this man paul said to the corinthians the light of the knowledge of the glory of god is in the face of christ the writer of hebrew says jesus is the radiance of god's glory and the very impress of his being this is not a prophet this is the picture of god because this is god and yet he gives them a second title he is the firstborn of all creation which brings some tension to the sentence i just said because in the 4th century a.d a man by the name of arius was a preacher in alexandria and was reading this passage the firstborn of all creation about jesus he was like okay the firstborn that means he was the first one born in all of creation makes sense if jesus is the begotten of the father begetting means you have a kid which means you didn't exist until you were born so there must have been a time jesus didn't exist and he began to preach that jesus was the first created being in a real top-notch one but he was created so there was a time when he was not and he put that to a song because it kind of rhymes in greek hayne potty out of ukane it was a hit with all the kids it got real popular there was a time when jesus was not because clearly he was born because uh it says he was the firstborn meaning he was the first one born which means there was a time when he was not so he can't be god because god had to make him he's begotten created which is a pretty compelling argument the firstborn is the first one born until you read passages like exodus 4 22 when moses was speaking to israel and he says thus says the lord israel is my son my firstborn and you go wait a minute israel was not the first nation on the planet actually there's a whole table of nations in genesis before the nation of israel came along the nation was not the first nation born or then in psalm 89 god says about david i will make him my firstborn but you go wait david wasn't the first king of israel saul was and david wasn't the first one born in his family he was like number eight so someone needs to explain to god what firstborn means because clearly god's confused or maybe we are and you realize you know what sometimes when you take a word and break it apart you don't get closer to the meaning you get further away from it right you've heard the famous explanations of that what's a driveway oh well it's a place you drive no actually the driveway is where you park what's a parkway what's a way in which you park no parkway is where you drive a butterfly is not butter that flies it's not a fly made of butter sandwiches contain neither sand nor witches sometimes when you break apart a word you don't get closer to the meaning you get further from it and if you look biblically at the term firstborn it doesn't mean the first one born it means the preeminent one it means the one who inherits all the father has and that title of firstborn was not always bestowed upon the first child born it means you are the preeminent one all that i have is yours so when arius preached that in the fourth century it was one of the first times christian bishops were allowed to assemble because persecution had ended in rome back then if christian bishops had assembled before that it would have been the last thing they would have done but uh after persecution ended bishops came together at nicaea and at the council of nicaea they said no begotten does not mean made and they looked at passages like in john where john 5 where the jews wanted to kill jesus and when asked why john says because in calling god his father he was making himself equal with god their problem was you're saying you're of the same stuff as god when you say god is your father you're not saying and thus i was born every illustration when you push on the wrong part becomes untrue i'm the vine you're the branches that mean we have chlorophyll no that's the wrong part of the illustration to push on god is a husband and the church is his bride so god's married did they have sex no you're pushing on the wrong part of the illustration god is like a husband that he cares for and loves his wife jesus is like a vine and that he nourishes us so we bear fruit there's parts of the illustration if you press on it it becomes untrue there's other parts the more you press on it the more beautiful it appears to you to be and here you see when jesus says he's the begotten of the father what he's saying is i'm of the same stuff humans beget humans monkeys beget monkeys god begets god he is of the same stuff that's what they said at nicaea he is homousia of the same substance not homo usia of similar substance they would not budge one little iota no what the bible is presenting to you is that all that god is jesus is and you see it in this passage the way paul argues because he says he's the firstborn of all creation and then you see the word for he's explaining why for by him all things were created if you were trying to say you're a created thing this isn't how you would argue he says he's the firstborn the preeminent one over all creation why is he the premier over it because he made all of it for by him all things were created there is not a created thing jesus christ did not create that's what paul just said who is jesus he is the creator of all things and then he just keeps going both things in heaven and on earth visible things and invisible thing everything you've seen and everything you haven't was made by jesus and then he goes into detail about the unseen things whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities at the time in colossae there were false teachers trying to tell them hey jesus is fine but there's this fullness of gods there's a whole spiritual world you haven't tapped into and paul will hint at that yes there is a whole spiritual world that you cannot see and all of it was created by jesus and is subject to him you don't need anybody else's help you know the man in charge he's preeminent over it all because he made it all all things have been created through him you see the rhythm of the poetry he created all things all things were created through him but then paul throws in a magnificent little moment here he says all things were created through him and for him you and i were made by jesus and you and i were made for jesus he's the creator of all things and he's the end goal for all things if i curate a playlist for myself i select the songs just for me if i tailor make a hamburger for me i assemble it in a way that fits my preferences and paul just said all things are for him jesus christ is the beginning and he's the end he's the alpha and the omega and in verse 17 it says and he is before all things and in him all things hold together your molecules continue to cohere because jesus wills it to be so he is the creator sustainer and end goal of every thing that is not a prophet that is not a remarkable man that is not our homeboy that is the preeminent one there is no one like him it's interesting uh skeptics in the past like david hume bertrand russell who did not believe in god marveled at why is there order in the universe why why would we have an orderly universe which i remember tim keller speaking of this and he was like some of you would push back why do you say there's order there's disasters there's floods there's craziness all over he says no this is something more fundamental why does water boil at one temperature today and we believe it will tomorrow and the next day and the next day wood burns at a certain temperature today and tomorrow and the next day and the next day there are laws that govern the universe and we rely on those laws to fly planes to build buildings to walk on the globe there are physical laws that govern existence why because there's a law giver who made it all god does not emanate from creation like eastern philosophy he reigns over it and holds it together and as a law giver he holds together physical laws that allow us to function and moral laws that's why violating people's rights is a global problem it's not just a preference of people from a particular tribe or nation or group that we say no people have dignity regardless of where they're from and who's in charge why do we believe in universal laws like that because there's a universal law giver who made all things and for whom all things exist and in whom all things cohere and he is jesus and how does this before we move on apply to some of you can i pause right now and just say it has to make you deal with a power to this man paul is presenting jesus in a challenging way he is not a moral teacher he's not someone whose philosophy as we ascribe to he's god that changes things i remember for me when don and i were first married she worked at a coffee shop and became friends with everybody because that's my wife and she was amazing at it and among all the people in this coffee shop who were her friends was this particular muslim woman that she was studying in one corner and i would always show up studying for seminary in another corner and i remember one time coming in after her and donna had spent a lot of time together and she was so excited to meet me she was grabbed my hands and was like your wife is my sister i love her and i'm like that's awesome and uh so she's like we're family now and we would hang out and visit and talk and i remember at one point we sat together as my wife was making coffee her and i were visiting and she just said you know i just don't understand why in the world we can't all get along even across different religious boundaries and i said i agree i believe god made everybody in the image of god and therefore every person is is due honor and respect and courtesy and love and she said right and she said in and we all believe in jesus she was like i believe in jesus as a great prophet and you believe in jesus as a great prophet and i said i i said i think this is where you and i would would disagree i said you know it's interesting jesus when he was presenting himself he put out there you're either going to see me as a a stone that's the cornerstone you build your house on or i'll be the rock you stumble over i said so jesus pictured himself as a rock and you either build yourself on him or you trip over him and i said in what was so dynamic about jesus in the bible you see over and over again the way he's presented by others and himself is that he was not just a prophet he's god and i remember when i said that line she went don't say that and i said did you see what just happened i said he's my cornerstone you just stumbled over him now i want you to know something her and i continued to be friends and continue to have a civil conversation because this is a side note i think disagreement with civility is possible and i'm praying that more of us wouldn't believe and embrace that in the world today it's possible to disagree about fundamental essential universally important issues and still love people our gospel teaches us that her and i were able to have civil beautiful encouraging conversations after that and yet not compromise on something i my allegiance is to a man who was far more than a man he's the firstborn preeminent one over all things because he made it all by him and for him and let me tell you something when you understand that then you see why paul said when you get this you can have endurance even in pain with joy you can have peace even in a difficult day i remember when i was a youth pastor right out of college i mean i was in my 20s and i decided to take a group of high school kids on a mission trip to venezuela i knew nothing about venezuela and we had this opportunity to serve though and i wanted to do it and i wanted to go and i remember as i was preparing to go i met somebody that said hey man i heard y'all are going to venezuela and i said yeah and they were like hey just look out for the monkeys i was like what they were like yeah there's there's monkeys that run wild in the streets you'll see them like just running down the road you got to watch out for them baboons and stuff they're coming at you you gotta keep your head on the swivel and i was like uh okay and uh then as i was researching the ministry we were working with they're like hey they're gonna have a representative waiting for you at this one hotel you get your students to the hotel and this guy i'll take care of you and i was like okay so those are the two things i knew watch out for the monkeys i got a rep meeting us at this hotel so i loaded up an airplane with these miners and we flew to south america and we got there and i'm nervously transporting him to this hotel in my mind just going all i got to do is get there we got a guide who's going to show us what to do and i remember as i was in the uh taxi and we were driving to the hotel at one point i'm looking around and i asked the taxi driver where are all the monkeys and he went what i said someone told me that like monkeys are just like in the trees and running on the streets where all the monkeys he was like man there's no monkeys running around here and i was like oh yeah okay and suddenly i felt very embarrassed and then also i was like oh man that was like one of my critical pieces of information about your country which is maybe i should have done some more research but i was like but at least i know the most important thing i'm meeting the guy at the hotel and he's going to take care of us and i remember we showed up at the hotel there's a guy and i get out and i see him right when one of his major donors had also showed up to meet him and so he sees me come up but he's got this donor and he was like hey uh i'm gonna go show him around y'all just uh sit tight for a couple hours and he got in a taxi and drove off and i remember he drove off our taxi drove off and i'm staying in the middle of the street in a foreign country i've never been out of as a young guy with a group of kids and i'm like what have i just done i remember all these kids looking at me and so i had to project strength and i told them hey kids i'm going to take care of this y'all just give me one second that's chaperone stayed with him and i turned a corner and sat down next to a tree and was like oh my gosh what have i done there's no monkeys here there's no guide here i don't know what i'm doing i took some kids to a foreign country and what was i thinking and i just all the panic came in but i remember in that moment i was like man i need to calm down and function i got to lead how am i going to regulate and i started staring at this tree and i remember the thought hit my mind as i was staring at this tree god you made that tree god you rule over all this and not just a distant deity that created it all the jesus christ i love made all this i'm not a missionary who's bringing jesus in his pocket to venezuela i didn't tuck him in and come over and he's popping his head out going this is venezuela where are the monkeys like i didn't bring him he was already here jesus rules over all this he knew this country before it was named venezuela he knew this dirt because he made it he knows all these people because he knit them together and he knows their hopes and dreams and their brokenness and pain he knows all of us he rules all of it and it didn't give me all of my new details of how to check a kid into a hotel but it just helped me calm down to say the god i know rules over all this and it helped regulate me so i could function i know for me when i first started preaching i'd get so nervous before preaching and i didn't really know how to manage it and so what i started to do early in ministry is i would listen to david crowder and i would listen to him sing about jesus and i experienced the beauty of self-forgetting it's anxiety that was just so arresting for me and it created this ugly feedback loop inside but as i would listen to david to sing about i'm out of my mind it's for you because i'm crazy in love with you and as he's saying about jesus the more i focused on the beauty and sufficiency of him the less i worried about me and the better i was at doing what he built me to do and paul will tell them you want to bear fruit and every good work you an increase in knowledge and the will of god do you want to have endurance with patience and joy you fix your eyes on him the preeminent one this is the one we serve jesus christ the beginning of it all he is lord and in him all things hold together is your life chaos or is it cosmos jesus holds all things together and he'll hold your life together if you trust him and then paul turns a corner and he moves from this cosmological focus to a soteriological one starts talking about what he did for you and i in a very different way and you see in verse 18 it says he is also the head of the body the church and he's the beginning the firstborn from the dead so that he himself might come to have first place in everything he said he was the head over all of creation but then he says he's the head over his body the church so jesus is the head of creation and the head of his church but in a much more intimate way it's like there's a way you could talk about me as the head of passion city dc so you could say well ben is the head of passion city dc and he's the head of his own body and one of those connections is far more intimate the intimate connection of my body means wherever my head goes my body goes we are intimately knit together at the cellular level and it says of jesus he has this universal rule and reign and he has an intimate connection with a certain clientele of people he has a majesty and a meekness he is almighty and he is intimate there's something fascinating about what's available to us in jesus i told the story i think a couple months ago of traveling and my girls are at the age where they can come with me sometimes now when i preach and i brought my oldest hannah with me when i came back here to texas to preach one time and you know she's used to washington dc and so it was interesting to bring her to dallas texas and and realized i had to explain some things to her as we would pull up at churches and i'm like see look this is called a parking lot um it's this big open space where where people can park their cars and there's a lot of them because people drive here and they drive big cars and they park at their church and and yeah that's pretty amazing and we walked into these churches and they were massive with these big seating arenas like yeah some churches babe have buildings and and they have chairs inside of them you know just explaining to her some some different cultural differences and i remember as we were there uh we had someone that was meeting us there that was a family friend that was going to sit with hannah and so i went to preach at this conference and hannah and and our dear friend kind of sat in the back of the room and when they came up later it was the funniest thing i went out there and it was this amazing conference my friends put on uh and uh thousands of people were in this church and i got up there and did what what had become a regular part of my life preached to these people the word of god and then got off stage and went backstage and and my friend brought our daughter back and she was smiling at me and she was like uh man she was like that was interesting and i'm like what are you talking about and and i looked down and my daughter is just staring at me and my daughter was like dad you were on stage like yeah babe i told you that like we came to preach and she was like yeah but in front of all those people and and they were listening to you and i'm like yeah babe and i looked up at our friend and she was like i don't know that she's seen you in this context before she was like she listened to every word you said and the whole time she kept looking at me and saying that's my dad my dad's on stage there's lights on him people are listening to him and people would laugh and she's like people are laughing at what my dad said and she's like right that's your dad but she was watching this little girl go no wait the guy that i shared gummy bears with on the plane the guy that we laid in bed and read books with before we went to bed the guy that i walk through life with and know intimately also has this authority that i wasn't aware of and so she was telling me about hannah's experience of listening to me and while she did hannah was petting my arm which i'm like what are you doing and it was like she was just going yeah same dad but i got this whole other layer to how i understand you you're still the intimate one who loves me but you have an authority that doesn't fully change who you are but wow it changes something inside of me to go the person with that kind of authority knows me loves me is intimately connected to me and that's my little story but jesus with his disciples they would walk with him everywhere ate every meal with him hung out with him they knew him and yet he brought them up to the mount of transfiguration and said boys let me pull the curtain back for a second and they watched him glow like the sun and they fell down to worship him and they realized our friend is the almighty it's hard to even reconcile the lion is the lamb the meek and the majestic but when you realize it it is overwhelming it'll make you sing it'll bring you peace the head of all creation is the head of his church the almighty is intimate with you and me if you know him if you're his he's the firstborn over creation but he's also the firstborn from among the dead so that he himself will have the first place in everything it says he's the beginning the rk the founder he's founding a community and he's the firstborn of that community so he can be the preeminent not just in creation but in this community so he'll be preeminent overall and yet something interesting is happening here it says he's the firstborn from the dead for it was the father's good pleasure to have all of his fullness dwell in him they were looking for fullness outside of him they said no you don't find fullness outside of him there is fullness in him all that the father is jesus is they are separate in their identities but connected intimately as a trinity that they are unique uh individuals and yet combined as one triune god with the father son and spirit all the fullness in the father all the fullness in the son and through him he reconciled all things to himself having made peace through the blood of his cross through him i say whether things on earth or things in heaven and what's interesting here is we've been talking about the cosmological christ he's rules all things created all things and then paul says and he's the firstborn from among the dead because he reconciled us through the blood of his cross he said wait a minute creator dead life-giver dead reconciling us through blood on a cross and you see what paul kind of blows past is what you and i know and experience is that there was a massive dislocation between the creator and his creation that all of us like sheep have gone astray when our first parents broke faith with god everything broke and the world is filled with sin and sin sick and has been estranged from him and yet here's the beauty of this passage when god saw us break faith with him when he saw the sickness of sin permeate us all he did not quarantine us and back away jesus stepped in and put his hands into our sickness and said i will not let my creation grow sick and die apart from me i made it and when it left me i will go get it and i will reconcile with it he's not just the creator of all he's the savior of all i've used the movie taken as an illustration so many times because it so fits liam neeson the creator of his beautiful daughter and she lies to him because she wants to have an experience without his permission and she goes to europe with some seedy people and make some compromising decisions and ends up going further than she meant to go getting into some darkness she never meant to be in and she's in a very dark and terrifying place being trafficked and yet her father when he hears all this doesn't say well that was a dumb choice good thing i got some other kids around here when he sees his child go astray he crosses oceans he steps into the seedy underground where she's captive he wages war against the darkness to break chains and set her free her maker was her savior and he will go through anything to bring her back and that's the poem paul preaches he says the creator of god when he saws go astray condescended and became a man he saw our weakness so he took it on he saw the frustration of our work in the dirt and he walked on that same dirt he saw in the garden god said the ground will be cursed because of you adam thorns and thistles that will grow and he took those thorns and thistles and he wore him on his brow the tree where adam and eve violated god by taking the fruit as an act of rebellion against his ruling jesus christ allowed himself to be nailed to a tree to pay the penalty for our transgression the sacrifice that covers our sin the very nails that went through his hands were made from metal that he himself put into the mountains and yet the creator of all became a servant of all became the sacrifice for all to reconcile all to reconcile to make friends again to race into the dark and rescue back all who were lost so that he might be preeminent in everything who is jesus christ to us he's not just a prophet although he prophesied not just a teacher although he taught he is the creator sustainer end goal and savior of his people he is everything to us he's our rescuer our hero our maker and our reason that's who he is that he might be preeminent in everything and he reconciled and then he gets so personal and through him to reconcile all things to himself and then in verse 21 it says and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind engaging in evil deeds now paul looks at us and said and you were alienated from him and you weren't just alienated you were hostile there was animosity to him i don't want to be subjected to you god and that animosity had action to it we all engaged in evil deeds every one of us is dirty with the stain of rebellion and the same god who made us all is the same god who came racing after us all and so he looks at the colossians and said you were alienated you were hostile you were engaged in evil deeds but he's reconciled you in his body through death in order to protect you before him holy and blameless beyond reproach if indeed you continue in the faith what does he want from us faith i want you to trust me i want you to trust what i've done and when you trust me i make you holy i make you blameless and so what do you do with your life you trust me and celebrate me and are empowered by me and live for me because i made all of this i'm reconciling it this isn't a secret message it's being preached across the nations this isn't secret knowledge like the false teachers were saying this is meant to be spread to all anybody who will come there's redemption for you god can be your friend none of us are okay all of us are broken in sin that dislocation you feel is real and god has done something real about it he went from heaven to earth to reconcile earth to heaven through jesus christ do you know him will you trust him he's what we have and he's who we live for so i went to europe to london excuse me with my uncle right out of college went to london so excited to go on this trip with him he was a successful stock broker one of the most successful in his company so he got an all-expense-paid trip to london and his wife didn't like to travel so he brought his clueless nephew who was a youth pastor whose office was a broom closet and i got to go and it was insane because i had forgone a backpack through europe trip with my buddies and uh so i could start work at a church and yet now i got a call from my stockbroker uncle to go on an all-expense paid trip with him and the contrast between experience was vast uh when i showed up with him we stayed at the best hotels alongside bruce springsteen and uh the spice girls which was a huge deal at the time and i remember when we got there it was all riding in the back of private cars i remember when we first checked in at the hotel they were like are you ben stewart i said yes they're like okay here's your hotel keys and here's a huge envelope of cash and i was like what i love this trip it was just a great start and so all week long while we were there i was in suits riding in the back of cars and i would drive past kids my age that were just covered in grimes sleeping under benches next to uh statues and i would just be like roll up the windows james as we drove by them to our five course meals it was pretty amazing but i remember the first night when i got there uh there was a big banquet for all of us stock brokers and plus ones and i remember when we showed up there uh i walked downstairs very excited in this hotel and i walked down and someone came up to me and they said well you look awful young to be one of our stock brokers and they were like and i was like no i'm not i'm here with my uncle and they're like oh okay what do you do and i said to her well i'm a youth pastor i tell kids about jesus and i remember when i said that i'm not making this up she went and i was like wow i just have never been rejected like that like not even a word and then got in the buffet line was getting food i thought that was weird and i remember someone looked at me and they were like well you look awful young to be one of our stockbrokers i was like i was like no i'm not i'm here with my uncle and they're like oh okay what do you do i said i'm a youth pastor i tell students about jesus and when i said that they went and walked out and that happened multiple times and it was really deflating and i remember by the end of the evening i was not having much fun anymore and i remember someone came up to me right at the end of the night oh you look awful young and they said what do you do and i said i work with young people that's so great that's amazing i believe the children are our future teach them well and let them lead the way show them the beauty they possess inside and we begin to have this conversation where they were so proud of me for working with kids and i was like oh that's so great all the acceptance i could want all i had to do was sever my tie to jesus and i left that meeting feeling kind of sick about it and i remember i sat in the bar that night and pulled out the book i had been reading at the time which was called the cost of discipleship by dietrich bonhoeffer and i was like oh man this is the book i brought and i read it and i remember thinking lord i never want to disassociate with jesus for approval again and i'm not going to be needlessly combative but i want to be unapologetic unapologetically affiliated with the one who gave hole for me and there were some people that loved that because they loved him there are some people that didn't because they were on vacation they didn't want to mess with all that i wasn't running around hitting with bibles but they just didn't want to mess with me and i remember by the last night i was sitting there and hadn't necessarily made a lot of friends on the trip and i was sitting alone at this beautiful meal they had there was this performance from this amazing band and actors and singers were putting on this medley of all these famous plays and i was sitting by myself and i remember as i did that this woman suddenly just attacked the chair next to me she was like oh my gosh your uncle just told me what you do she said that's amazing i was like really she said yes she said who do you tell people you work for are you like um god like who do you tell him you get a paycheck from are you like um god and i said i do say that she's like really and i went no i don't say that that would be super weird and she was like well i just think that's amazing she said i've been learning so much about god lately and i was like what and she was like yes it's been incredible i just realized something's missing in my life and i want to know god and so i've been going to a spiritual guide back home and he was telling me that spirituality is like a big mountain and god's at the top and we're all at the bottom and there's all these different paths to get to him like different religions and it doesn't really matter what path you go on as long as you're sincere they'll all get to the top and so some people believe this some people believe that some people believe this there's all these different paths but it really doesn't matter as long as you get there and we're all going to get there and if she's saying this my heart's starting to sink and i'm like oh no not the mountain and i remember when she was done i went hey i gotta be honest i totally disagree with you which just fyi tends to be a conversation killer to say something like that she looked stunned and i said look i i i'm not trying to offend you at all i i said um but i'll tell you who i am i said um i'm a christian my allegiance is to jesus christ because i believe these scriptures are the word of god and they tell me that jesus was not just a teacher he's the son of god and we are so broken and so lost because of sin that the son of god had to come and die for us that's the only way but we are so loved by god that he did it and i don't think it's multiple paths where you be a good person or you read that or the bloody crucifixion of the son of god that can't be one of the options i'd be sadistic if it was i think we're so bad there was really only one way and god did it i said so i love him and all my allegiances to him so if you want to know me i'm with jesus and that's who i want everybody to know and i fully expected her to leave but i remember she went explain that again i was like oh oh okay this is normally the part where people leave but oh my gosh okay well um yeah so jesus is really great and so i started telling her about him and she's asking me questions and we start having a conversation we start talking and i remember she had me go through the gospel like three times and there was one point where i told her look at the end of the day it's all about jesus and when i said that to her the band who i was completely ignoring and this whole performance that was really beautiful at one point the music all hit this crescendo and they had all the lights kind of flash on with brightness literally i was like it's all about jesus and they went like this big moment and she went oh my gosh she said do you know what song that was i said no that was jesus christ superstar and i went it's a sign repent the kingdom of god is near but we continued to talk and we rode back on the same shuttle back to the hotel and remember when we got to the hotel she goes you're not gonna believe this somebody left a bible in my hotel room and i was like what is his name gideon that's weird and she was like i'm gonna go get it and she said i want you to show me everything you just said she brought her bible down and i'm like oh yeah well um there's a lot of i mean gosh where to start uh john 3 16. let's go there and we began to sit and i had one of the most amazing times with this woman offering her the best thing i have and let me tell you something that's what we're doing as a church that's who we are because that's who you need the creator of all bled out on a cross for you and me because he's the savior of all the one who made the world became a part of it bled out into the dirt so you and i could be reconciled to god that the world is a broken and dark place and the more you look at it the deeper the darkness seems but god has done something decisive about it and the more you fix your eyes on jesus i promise you the more light you will see and the more you fix your eyes on him the more hope you'll experience and out of that hope comes faith and love and endurance and patience and joy and a purpose and a future because you were made by him you cohere because of him and you are made for him do you know him because you are his and you will not be complete until you are knit together with your head you

Channel: Passion City Church DC

Views: 15,623

Keywords: Passion, Passion City Church, Passion Sermons, Ben, Stuart, Washington D.C., Passion D.C., christian, sixsteps, (six), passion conference, passion, passion city church worship, passion church, passion music, worship, jesus, ben stuart, Colossians, Above All Earthly Powers

Id: Au9oBVmkflo

Length: 46min 3sec (2763 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 16 2021